The Drop’s 10 Best FPS Games (#5-1)

Okay, I’m sorry it’s been so long since this countdown has been concluded, but work has been pretty hectic in the last month. Just to name a few things, I’ve been working on a development course for my career, dealing with a unit inspection, working on finishing my associates degree and working 12 hour days. Terrorism doesn’t take a break, folks. But here you have it, the top 5 of TGT’s best FPS games.

Number 5 – Crysis

Crysis was the game everyone wanted but probably never got their hands on their own copy. If you were lucky like me and had a friend that had a state of the art computer sent from the future, then you got to get your hands on this amazing game! This game has been held respectfully as one of the most beautiful looking games ever developed. Crysis let people feel what it would be like to be a state of the art BAD ASS MAWW FUCKA! This was no ordinary FPS. Of course you had your pick of the standard weapons but by far the best weapon in your inventory was the Nano Suit. The nano suit allowed the game’s protagonist, Jake Dunn aka “Nomad,” to increase strength, stamina, stealth  and sight, making him the ultimate military weapon. No doubt about it, there’s something gratifying about walking into a room full of unaware baddies and making your presence known by picking one up and throwing him through a wall! Not only was this game beautiful and fun but it also had a sandbox editor. If you ever want to know whats it like to be on the receiving end of a nuclear shock blast, you can witness this on the sandbox editor. Hundreds of videos have been posted on youtube of players’ abilities to create and destroy. Like I said before, this game was impressive to say the least. Some of the best news I heard in a while was when the games developers want to make the sequel available to console players. Crysis 2 was released earlier this year and there will be a third installment with a new updated Cyteck engine. Can’t wait!

Number 4- Halo: Combat Evolved

 

There are a few games from old consoles I wish I had held onto and the original Halo is one of them. I remember the first night my friend Matt brought over his 8 pound Xbox over to my house and we marathoned the co-op campaign until 12 in the afternoon the next day. I forget what level it was but we must have stayed on the last battle for over 2 hours; redoing it over and over. One of us would take the Ghost into the enemy territory, commandeer a Banshee, fly up to the bridge overhead and provide sniper support. The other would take another ghost and try to mow down hunters. Our fail-safe; the rocket launcher! I think we mastered our plan and even restarted the checkpoint over again just to keep playing. This game was like nothing out on the market. Do I even need to mention the multiplayer? I guess I just did. Blood Gultch and Sidewinder were the levels to play. Even for two people, you could have some epic battles on these levels. This game was also the start of my combination of gaming and drinking! The one thing the first halo had that the others haven’t is the cloaking that actually blended you into everything. There was no outlines if you got close to them; you were completely invisible! With this ability came our drinking game “Sniper Wipe.” All players would be equipped with camouflage and a sniper rifle. The game was to kill the other, but if you got killed, you’d take a shot. Later installments of the franchise proved just as successful and fun as the original! And this year at E3 we got a classic teaser way too early for the 4th to be released next year! This game is guilty by association and is an automatic buy. Not only that, the developers are treating their adoring fans with a re-release of Halo: Combat Evolved with an updated graphics overlay!

Number 3 – Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

 

There has never been a game I’ve poured more time into than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This game lead the way for the COD franchise to be the household name that it is today. It was the first of the modern era Call of Duty games and was renowned for its multiplayer. I think on my original gamer tag, I had racked up over an entire month of online gameplay. In tech school, we had a 2 hour lunch break; over 30 minutes of it would be spent walking between the dorms and the schoolhouse. And yet, every day, me and my buds would take our lunches to the dorms to score some play time online. You had a wide variety of weapons to choose from online and it had tons of different game types to choose from. My personal favorite was Hardcore Search and Destroy. I had a couple of friends from back home that always teamed up and this was our bread and butter. If you played this game and we were on Pipeline or Downpour, the game was already won. I think I liked this game type the most because of its similarities to Counter Strike. The only difference is the ability to call in kill streaks! One of us always managed to obtain a Helo which would be thrown down usually to hunt the last remaining player on the opposing team. This game really stood out to me, so much in fact that I returned Modern Warfare 2 to get back the original Modern Warfare. I don’t want to go on about my opinions on recent installments of the franchise but COD4 was by far one of my most played games ever and still sits as one of my favorite FPS games of all time.

Number 2 – Battlefield 2

 

This game is what sparked the competitive multiplayer fire for me. I got a glimpse of this online with a video showing an RPG round missing a Blackhawk by traveling THROUGH the passenger openings. I had never seen anything like it and I probably annoyed my buddy Matt by coming over constantly to play it. The incorporation of classes, squads, and vehicles really drew me in. Not only that but it had a Commander position. Your job as the commander was to assign objectives to different squads and keep everyone’s situational awareness up to speed. Commanders also have the abilities to supply ammo drops, vehicle respawns and UAV’s. Although the commander position couldn’t acquire points through kills and flag captures, his score is doubled at the end of the match if their team won. I had never played a game that required tactics before but after a few hours, I realised that running in guns blazing usually wasn’t the best option. The thing I love most about the BF series in general is how they incorporate team work. This is of utmost importance if you want to keep your squad alive on the front lines achieving objectives. ‘Cause lets face it, when you’re up against 32 other players in a single game, you’re going to die and run out of ammo. The beauty of the class structure is that with team work, players can be stocked up on ammo and revived so they can hop back into the fray. The Battlefield series was brought to consoles with the Bad Company editions. On October 25th, Battlefield 3 will hit stores and will be in my possession and so will end what little social life I have left! I could honestly care less about social life.

Number 1 – The Orange Box

 

In today’s economy, it’s hard to find money for all the hit titles that will be coming out in the upcoming months. Granted, the number one pick is not new by any means but well worth the money; even if you buy it brand new. The Orange Box is a game I refuse to trade in. I’ve bought one copy on day 1 of its release and I haven’t traded it in. With this one disc, you get 5 games! Half Life 2, HL2 Episode 1, HL2 Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2!  Each of these games satisfies all your gaming needs. With the Half Life 2 games, you get an amazing story. There are some classic gun fights in these games and who doesn’t feel like a kid in a candy store when they have the gravity gun? On top of the great games Valve provides us with the Half Life series, the Orange Box also brings Portal to the table. An FPS puzzle game. If you haven’t tried any of the Portal games, I would highly recommend them. This was actually the first game I played off the disc and it is astonishing how a simple concept can bring so much gratification in gaming. You build portals to make your way through a lab full of puzzles all the while being led on by a sadistic, narcissistic AI Glados. A lot of people didn’t understand how they could have made a sequel but Portal 2 is just as much fun as the first one and brings new elements to the table as well. The final product on the disc is Team Fortress 2. TF2 is a class based multiplayer that received a new look. Its cartoon-ish look and hilariously fun game play is well suited for the sequel. If I’m ever annoyed at online FPS games, I’ll throw in the Orange Box and play a few games of TF2 to calm me down. It’s like a cycle, ’cause after I play TF2, the next day I’ll want to play some more. It’s crazy how awarding and addictive all these games are and whats crazier is that they can all be found on one disc! It’s because this set of games is such a steal that it is our Number 1 FPS game!

That wraps it up for our countdown and this weeks edition of The Drop. Stop by again next week as I pay tribute to a game that I think hasn’t received the praise it deserves.